Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Greetings!

I was wondering if anyone here play any 'Ranger-ish' instrurments? I play the Native American flute (well I try to!) And hope to get some Pan pipes upon my Birthday. So does anyone?

-Chris

You can se me playing here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTwoHunters

I'm trying to learn to play the Fife. I'm making some progress which is surprising because I've never had any musical talent.

I think several of us here play ocarinas. I'm not very good, but I have I think five different ones. Seems like a remember a thread from about a year or so ago that talked about ocarinas. They're small and light and good for rangering in that way, but the clay and ceramic ones are fragile. In fact, I have a clay one that I dropped and had to reassemble. It is just a cheap one, but I've altered it to be in tune and to have two extra notes. You can get wooden ocarinas, but they're expensive. There are also polycarbonate, aluminum and stone ones that you can get here:

http://www.mountainsocarina.com/b/products/

Here's a clip of someone playing a mountain ocarina:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOEvnE4pdfc

I'm not trying to promote mountain ocarinas in particular, it's just that they are sturdy enough to use as a ranger instrument. If anyone knows of a less expensive option for sturdy ocarinas, I'd love to know!

Hey Elegost, you sound pretty good!

I forgot about Solist ocarinas. They're made from a sturdy material, though I don't know what it is, and they are occasionally available on ebay for a decent price. There are also plastic ocarinas, but you don't necessarily know what you're getting when you buy one. I've heard some are good and some aren't.

Solist, If I remember correctly, are actually made from plastic, they can also be made from clay as well. I know the Solist Plus's chamber is made of plastic and the fipple and mouthpiece are made of clay.


I use to be able to play the flute when I was younger. I've been wanting to take up the pennywhistle, but don't think I'll ever get around to it, lol. The most I've ever done with music is choir. I could pick amazing grace on the guitar but that's about all.

A quick search confirms that the solist is plastic, but it's a very high grade plastic that neither looks or feels like it. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was enameled metal, and the tone is heavenly. I have two Clarke pennywhistles, but I find them difficult to get a good tone out of. I'm sure it's just my lousy technique, but ocarinas don't seem to require much technique to get a good tone. Why, I honestly can't tell you, since both ocarinas and pennywhistles are whistles. I also like the increased range that a good 12 hole ocarina has over a pennywhistle. Really, you can't go wrong with a Solist 12 hole "sweet-potato". It actually sounds better than a Mountain to me, and I find it actually to be easier to play. Darren Songbird makes heavenly clay ocarinas. I have one of his 6 hole pendant ocarinas, and it actually is the sweetest sounding ocarina I own. The English fingering system it uses is a little difficult though.

kaelln wrote: Darren Songbird makes heavenly clay ocarinas. I have one of his 6 hole pendant ocarinas, and it actually is the sweetest sounding ocarina I own. The English fingering system it uses is a little difficult though.

I have one of his Dragon Tooth Ocarinas and am slowly learning to play it as well.

A traditional bamboo recorder sounds really nice, I might consider adding that to my kit

I have Native American flutes, frame drums and doumbeks, but my favorite instrument of all is the harp..I have five of them of different sizes and types.

I am learning the violin...and I have penny whistles and zills.

The harp though, that would be my baby. Has been for the past 20+ years.

Queen of instruments.

Eledhwen

Thankyou for the links and telling nme what you all play everyone, sorry this is rather late, but I have been down with a nasty Virus, anywya on the mend now.

-Chris

I play a bit of guitar and I used to have a really sweet lute guitar that I played at renfairs and my earlier SCA years when I had a bard persona. This is a picture of it when I was in Man of Lamancha (and no the make up artist was not a pro!)



I would love to find one of these Lute guitars again and have been on the lookout on EBay and such.

I am looking at one of these now:



This is a Martin Backpacker, it truly looks to me, due to it's angular construction and compactness, that it would be the type of design a dwarf would build and use (maybe on the road) It reminds me of many of the smaller Balilikas I have seen.

I also play the Harmonica. I learned to play when I was a little kid when an old German man who lived around the corner was throwing out a bunch of his fathers antique ones (he hated the old man and told my friend and I to take them if we wanted them) I had three from that fellow of all sizes, and collected a bunch more. Chromatic, echo, two sided, most strait from Germany.
They always put me in the mindset of Barvaria, Alpine hats and leiderhosen. maybe even some guy with a big beard and a Stien of beer! (DWARF!)

The instrument I have always loved is the Celtic drum they call the bodhrán.
My son was a percussion major and has one very much like this one that he wants to teach me to play:



I think this instrument would be very good for my persona, I have seen many renditions of the Unexpected Party in which they were featured.

Jumping in on some of the previous posts, I have carved some Ocarinas for people. I was inspired by a particular craftsman who made them to look like birds. Not the funny little whistle ones but nice big songbirds and such.



you blow through the tail:



I even found one from Scandinavia, so we could infer that such a model could have shown up in the markets of...Dale perhaps?



I particularly loved one he did that had the shape of a crow or raven and had a rich fruity tone. He made them of a stoneware type clay but the ones I made were of wood so I could carve them. I was making them for bird enthusiasts and not particularly musicians, so they looked very realistic, Not sure how well they played. They were very much like the heads on the flutes below.

One of these days I am going to have to give these a whack, I can already do the realistic head carving, and have meddled with a few Native american flute kits so this might not be out of the realm of possibility.....

http://www.whitecrowflutes.com/Birdhead.htm

Well, since the topic's open again...

Trumpet is my main instrument, being that I've played it the longest and actually reached some level of mastery with it, but I play Bodhran, Pennywhistles, Low Whistles, and Uilleann Pipes, which are all definitely Middle-Earth Applicable. Nothing does justice to Pippin's Song from ROTK (in my opinion) like a low whistle or Uilleann Pipes. When JBook finishes his move, I'll be joining his Irish Trio (well...I'll be making it a trio, I suppose) and at the next Indy Moot we plan to bring our instruments and have a grand old Dunedain Jam Session. Just one more shameless self-promotion reason for you all to come join us!

Hello fellow Ranger minstrels
I do have a nice six hole bamboo flute and a very cool gourd mandolin that I can actually play, once I took the flute on a lone elk hunt and at evening sat on a forest log and played simple melody, I must have hit the right note, cause I heard the faint reply of a cow elk at distance, anyways I was on a bull hunt with rifle, that was a memorable experience.
The gourd mandolin would be great for carry, it has a form fitting weatherproof nylon fabric carry case that would sling easily on my ruck. Its in the corner in case next to sofa.
Sorry, I don't have a pic of my mandolin, just my axes, plus electricity hard to find in middle earth, I took up music again after leaving active duty military service in 1970, I learned the songs of the 60's-70's and played in cover bands, now I just play for fun, kept all my amps and speaker cabs.
Paul/Falls

Is that the picture of the Gathering of Dancing Bears I see in the background? I do love that picture, it so reminds me of the scene that Bilbo imagined he heard from inside Beorns Hall, the night Beorn went to check out thier story. You can see why he did not want them to open the door!

Hey Falls, nice axes! A few years ago, a truck came through my bedroom, and among other things, it smashed my 1973(?) Framus SG copy. Last year, I was able to replace it with a Washburn WI66PRO, very much like this:



I also have an Applause roundback accoustic, with really sweet tone, and an Applause acoustic/electric roundback. I hope to be able to get a nice amp this year. Hey, if I ever make it to Oregon, maybe we could jam!